2010 Season

Welcome

Dear friends,

Welcome to our 2010 season—Spirituality in Music—and to our new web site! We’ve tried to convey what Salt Bay Chamberfest is all about: incredible performances of classical music in Maine by some of today’s most brilliant musicians; engaging, thoughtful programs; and our beautiful and dramatic setting in midcoast Maine.

What better way to begin a festival of classical music in Maine on this theme than with actual spirituals? During his visit to the New World, Antonin Dvorak was particularly inspired by Negro Spirituals and by the expressions of gratitude in the music of Native Americans. The Variation String Trio will be joined by pianist Benjamin Hochman and bassist Leigh Mesh for a thrilling season opener that will include Dvorak’s Bass Quintet as well as a Native American-inspired piano quartet, The Green Torso, by living composer Marc Neikrug.

For our second concert, we welcome back the internationally renowned Brentano String Quartet who will be performing Beethoven’s groundbreaking masterpiece, Quartet Op. 131. The program will start with Schumann’s pioneering song cycle, Dichterliebe, performed by baritone Randall Scarlata with Thomas Sauer, piano.

On August 17, we’ll have our very first cantor-in-residence, Elizabeth Shammash, for a program that explores the use of Jewish liturgical and folk music. You’ll hear works such as Kol Nidre sung in their original cantorial form, alongside more modern instrumental settings by composers Max Bruch and Ernest Bloch. Canadian violin virtuoso Jonathan Crow will make his Salt Bay debut in the Shostakovich Piano Trio # 2, complete with Jewish folk music.

Finally, themes of nature, religion, and war will converge in a program that pairs Messaien’s Quartet for the end of time, written in a prison camp during WW II, and George Crumb’s Black Angels, written in response to the Vietnam War. This program will feature an incredible group of musicians, including violinist Timothy Fain, violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, cellist Sophie Shao, and Romie de Guise-Langlois on clarinet. Soprano Lucy Shelton will help us lighten things up with some Weill cabaret songs!

It really doesn’t get much better than this!

We are so fortunate to have such a wealth of talent coming to Salt Bay Chamberfest. We hope you can join us for an exhilarating sixteenth season!

Wilhelmina Smith Artistic Director

Concerts

August 10, 2010

TUESDAY at 7:30 p.m.

TraditionalSpirituals: I Know the Lord has Laid his Hands on Me; Swing Low Sweet Chariot; I Got a Home in a Dat Rock (arr. Burleigh); Deep River (arr. Burleigh)

Masterclasses

August 13, 2010

FRIDAY from 3:00-4:30 p.m.

Schooner Cove, Damariscotta; Free and open to the public.

Pianist Sam McKenna will play the Chopin Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor and be coached by pianist Thomas Sauer. The trio of Josie Davis, violin, Nikolai Renedo, cello and Will Bristol, piano, will perform the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor and be coached by Sauer and Mark Steinberg, violin, of the Brentano String Quartet.

August 20, 2010

FRIDAY from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.

Skidompha Library, Damariscotta; Free and open to the public.

Violist Nathan Hillman with violinist Teal Vickery will play several duos based on J S Bach 2-Part Inventions, and Teal Vickery will play her viola in the Allegro movement of Johann Christian Bach’s Viola Concerto in C Minor. Their coach is Salt Bay’s visiting performer, Nokuthula Ngwenyama.